KurdistanObserver.com

MIT boss secretly visited Barzani in Erbil

Nov 23, 2005

By: Ilnur Cevik, The New Anatolian – Erbil

Meeting took place in Salahaddin before Massoud Barzani's historic Washington visit last month

Ankara makes effort to start new chapter with Iraqi Kurdish leaders, improve relations with Barzani

Massoud Barzani, the president of the Kurdistan region of Iraq, held a meeting with a top-level official from the Turkish National Intelligence Organization (MIT) before the Kurdish leader flew to Washington late last month to meet U.S. President George W. Bush at the White House.

The meeting took place at Barzani's Serirash headquarters in Salahaddin and was aimed at establishing a new dialogue between Ankara and the Barzani administration, a key element in the Kurdish leadership that has a major say in Iraqi politics.

The New Anatolian first heard of the meeting in Washington from diplomatic sources when Barzani visited the U.S. capital. The confirmation came in Erbil from two different Kurdish officials, one who attended the meeting and the other who was privy to the visit.

The MIT has an official presence in Salahaddin. Its office is manned by two officials who have close contacts with the Barzani administration.

The meeting came amid talk that both the U.S. and the British are urging closer ties between the Iraqi Kurdish leadership and Ankara. Iraqi President and Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) leader Jalal Talabani has closer ties with Ankara compared to Barzani, and recently said in an interview with TNA that he expects Barzani's Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) to make some moves to establish a better dialogue with Ankara.

A special report recently submitted to the KDP politburo evaluated the ties between the Barzani administration and Turkey, and urged the Kurdish leadership to make an effort to improve ties with Ankara.

Relations between Barzani and Ankara chilled when in the late 1990s Turkey decided to abandon high-level civilian and military direct contacts with Barzani and instead conduct its dialogue through a one-star general stationed in the border town of Silopi. Turkey accused the KDP of slowing down the fight against the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK)  holed up in the mountains of northern Iraq. Ankara also accused the KDP of working for an independent Kurdish state that it felt would be an attraction for its own secessionist Kurds. After Saddam Hussein was toppled and the Kurds managed to grab the center stage in Iraqi politics, Turkey has added the future of Kirkuk as a source of disagreement with the Kurds and the KDP.

Turkey says the Kurds are trying to boost the Kurdish population of the city artificially by importing people from the villages, much to the disadvantage of the Turkmens living in the city.

With respect to the PKK, the KDP says that the terrorist group has been a threat to the Kurds of Iraq as much as they have to Turkey, and they remind Ankara that peshmerga forces fought against the PKK side by side with Turkish soldiers in northern Iraq for years, but still couldn't dislodge them from the mountains. They say it has been proven that military action against the terrorists is useless and they urge Turkey to declare an amnesty for the PKK militants. The U.S. and Britain are urging the Iraqi Kurds to at least contain the PKK and not allow them free movement in the Kurdistan region of Iraq.

The Kurds also say an “independent Kurdistan” is a dream for them but stress that both in practical and in political terms this is impossible. They say they have had every opportunity to declare an independent state in the past few years since Saddam was toppled, but instead they chose to be a part of Iraqi politics and play an active role in fostering unity and solidarity in the country. "We have participated voluntarily in the Iraqi political process and thus we have shown we don't intend to part from Iraq," Talabani told TNA recently.

On Kirkuk, the Kurds say the province should be a part of the Kurdistan federal entity. They want a referendum for the people of Kirkuk to decide the future of the province. The new constitution says such a referendum should be held by 2007. However, the Kurds want Arabs who were settled in Kirkuk to be sent back to where they came from, and Kurds and Turkmens who were evicted by Saddam to return to their homes before a referendum is held. Turkmens say the Kurdish leadership in Iraq is more interested in increasing the Kurdish population of the city and creating a de facto situation.

TNA learnt that both the U.S. and Britain have told Barzani to tone down his Kurdish nationalist rhetoric on Kirkuk so as not to offend Turkey.

TNA has also been told in Ankara that Turkey is doing some soul-searching and sees that the Kurdish leaders are a reality of Iraqi politics, and that the Kurdistan region of Iraq has become a legitimate entity according to international law. So they're seeking a new approach on the issue and the start of a new chapter with the Kurds.